What is the best way to get rid of small hive beetles within your bee hive?
It is time to get serious about small hive beetles before they over take your bee hive. A word of caution, the small hive beetles will also lay their eggs in the pollen cells within the frames. The eggs will remain dormant until this coming Spring. Once the Spring weather is here, the small hive beetle pupa will pop out the pollen within the hive and they look like small inch worms. The larva will crawl out of the hive and fall to the ground where it will pupate and emerge as a hive beetle.
An important beekeeping supply is Beetle Jails. We have been using Beetle Jails for 6 years and absolutely love them.
What makes this trap different for the others? It is simple, this trap uses a bait compartment that you will pour apple cider vinegar in the middle compartment. That is what draws in the small hive beetles.
Please note that apple cider vinegar evaporates and you will need to refill the compartment about every 10 days or so.
You will want to place the Beetle Jail in the back corner of the hive and clipping the Beetle Jail on the out most frame. If you have a small hive beetle problem it would be best to place another Beetle Jail in the other rear corner of the hive. Placing the Beetle Jail in the corner is extremely important as small hive beetles shy away from light. Additionally, the small hive beetles will camp out in this area of the hive. Honey bees will try to corral the small hive beetles in this area of the hive.
The compartments on each side will need to be filled with mineral oil. When the small hive beetle comes into the trap, they will fall into the mineral and drown.
When you go back in 10 days simply empty the entire Beetle Jail and refill each of the compartment.
How can you reduce having hive beetles in the Hive?
There are many ways to greatly reduce having a bee hive full of hive beetles. Research has found that hives that are in a shaded area are more prone to have hive beetles. Shaded bee hives will have soil that is moist and really optimal for the pupa to pupate within the ground. So the best thing a beekeeper can do is to move the hive to full sun that gets 10 hours of direct sun each summer day.
If you cannot move your hive, there is a plan “B”! Plan B is to go to your local hardware store and purchase landscaping fabric. Take the landscaping fabric and place 5 runs of 3 ft wide fabric in front of the hive. What the landscaping fabric does is that it heats up and the small hive beetle pupa will hit the black landscaping fabric and die. Additionally, the pupa can navigate, on the ground, for up to 10 ft away from the hive. The landscaping fabric also does not allow the pupa to burrow into the ground.
Yes, there is a Plan “C”! This plan is a more longer solution and will not help you for this season. Using diatomaceous earth is an organic way of mechanical insecticide for the small hive beetle pupa. Diatomaceous earth does take time about 8 months to become effective.
If the beekeeper ignores the small hive beetles within the hive, the small hive beetles will eventually collapse the bee hive leaving the beekeeper with dead bees.